Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:27
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
Anything can be “faked” if a kid is inclined to exaggerate.
Regarding a job, I don’t think it’s impressive because it’s common.
Many applicants have jobs.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:23
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
So cynical. Don't let this process disrupt your child's life and yours like this.
Thank you. Very few people cheat the system this way, and yet we assume it’s rampant because we hear about the few cases of egregious lying. It is so corrosive.
Have you seen the kids on Reddit? A lot more people cheat the system than you can even imagine.
This is my point. Reddit A2C is not a representative sample. It’s a self-selected group of kids who are desperately chasing prestige admissions. A huge portion of the kids aren’t from the U.S. and are sort of blindly throwing darts at the board. You can’t extrapolate from this!
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:17
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics captain
AND Lead Cheerleader
AND Math team captain
AND Debate co-captain
AND Faculty award for top student in HS
In at two of HYP
lol. We had a kid with a similar profile at the school. Captain of everything. Didn’t get into any T20s. End up at a T20 liberal arts school.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:16
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
So cynical. Don't let this process disrupt your child's life and yours like this.
Thank you. Very few people cheat the system this way, and yet we assume it’s rampant because we hear about the few cases of egregious lying. It is so corrosive.
I know. I'm fairly certain that the people reading these applications don't approach their task with the assumption that everyone is trying to pull a fast one.
Actually, they are looking for reasons to distrust the app. There is a reason why kids from feeder schools get into top schools at a much higher rate. It has to do with them being able to trust the application. If there is anything which causes them to distrust the candidate at a selective school, the application has a greater shot of just being disregarded.
I can tell you that from our "feeder" nyc private that sends more than 1/3 of the graduating class to top10 schools, SO MUCH of the extracurricular/passion project stuff is completely manufactured by pricey consultants and parents using their contacts and resources. Colleges do not care - they want to accept who they want to accept, and fake ECs for kids like that - whose families will donate enough to put their names on buildings and endowed chairs - give the colleges a way to "rationalize" those acceptances of kids with poor GPAs and weak characters.
You were at a feeder. They trust that the kid is prepared and will make an impact because they have been given the resources and the means to do that. They won’t be taking a risk with that kid and likely the kid needs no funding and will absolutely graduate. This isn’t rocket science.
They like feeder kids. If you are not at a feeder, yes you have to jump through hoops.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:15
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics captain
AND Lead Cheerleader
AND Math team captain
AND Debate co-captain
AND Faculty award for top student in HS
In at two of HYP
Other than being good at becoming captain, I don’t see anything stand out in this resume. Where is the impact? How many times AIME qualified?
DP.
It demonstrates a remarkably diverse skill set. I can’t imagine that schools see that combo very often.
It actually makes it seem like none of those activities take a significant amount of time or commitment - which is odd, because I can tell you at our HS, it would be impossible to do them all together - debate would conflict with math team and gymastics, probably with cheerleading as well. You could do gymnastics and cheerleading for a different season, and maybe squeeze in math OR debate, but even then you would have to miss games, competitions, practices - which is really frowned upon at our school.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:14
Subject: Re:What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:OP:
You might want to read this to understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingIvyLeague/s/RhzuFuM1ea
I think this is true for ORM at HYPSM
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:13
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:13
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics captain
AND Lead Cheerleader
AND Math team captain
AND Debate co-captain
AND Faculty award for top student in HS
In at two of HYP
Other than being good at becoming captain, I don’t see anything stand out in this resume. Where is the impact? How many times AIME qualified?
DP.
It demonstrates a remarkably diverse skill set. I can’t imagine that schools see that combo very often.
Are you okay, having fallen off a turnip truck right now?????????
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:11
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
So cynical. Don't let this process disrupt your child's life and yours like this.
Thank you. Very few people cheat the system this way, and yet we assume it’s rampant because we hear about the few cases of egregious lying. It is so corrosive.
I know. I'm fairly certain that the people reading these applications don't approach their task with the assumption that everyone is trying to pull a fast one.
Actually, they are looking for reasons to distrust the app. There is a reason why kids from feeder schools get into top schools at a much higher rate. It has to do with them being able to trust the application. If there is anything which causes them to distrust the candidate at a selective school, the application has a greater shot of just being disregarded.
I can tell you that from our "feeder" nyc private that sends more than 1/3 of the graduating class to top10 schools, SO MUCH of the extracurricular/passion project stuff is completely manufactured by pricey consultants and parents using their contacts and resources. Colleges do not care - they want to accept who they want to accept, and fake ECs for kids like that - whose families will donate enough to put their names on buildings and endowed chairs - give the colleges a way to "rationalize" those acceptances of kids with poor GPAs and weak characters.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:09
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics captain
AND Lead Cheerleader
AND Math team captain
AND Debate co-captain
AND Faculty award for top student in HS
In at two of HYP
Other than being good at becoming captain, I don’t see anything stand out in this resume. Where is the impact? How many times AIME qualified?
DP.
It demonstrates a remarkably diverse skill set. I can’t imagine that schools see that combo very often.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:08
Subject: Re:What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
OP:
You might want to read this to understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingIvyLeague/s/RhzuFuM1ea
You might want to read this to understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingIvyLeague/s/RhzuFuM1ea
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:08
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
It is not the activity they are accepting, it is the kid - for example, my kid was captain of two varsity teams in HS, which is an EC everyone here would say is meh. Common wisdom here is that varsity sports are a waste of time unless the kid goes the recruitment route (mine did not), takes too much time away from academics and "more meaningful" ECs, etc. For my kid, becoming captain was amazing EC - he was shy freshman year, a quiet kid who did not come out of his shell, but by senior year had undergone a true transformation - and being voted in as captain of two teams was a great way to illustrate that growth. His coach poured his heart into a recommendation letter, which a few colleges referred to in their acceptance letters. It is not the activity, it is what the kid makes of it.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:04
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
So cynical. Don't let this process disrupt your child's life and yours like this.
Thank you. Very few people cheat the system this way, and yet we assume it’s rampant because we hear about the few cases of egregious lying. It is so corrosive.
I know. I'm fairly certain that the people reading these applications don't approach their task with the assumption that everyone is trying to pull a fast one.
Actually, they are looking for reasons to distrust the app. There is a reason why kids from feeder schools get into top schools at a much higher rate. It has to do with them being able to trust the application. If there is anything which causes them to distrust the candidate at a selective school, the application has a greater shot of just being disregarded.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:02
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A normal summer job. And I'm not kidding.
This unfortunately can be faked. Not that the student wasn't there at all. But the level of commitment can be exaggerated. Some employers don't send W-2 forms for low-level jobs like working at a car wash, and the student made so little that they need not file a tax return. So anyone can easily exaggerate the number of weeks/year and number of hours/week worked. It is not possible to disprove, even if colleges wanted to.
So cynical. Don't let this process disrupt your child's life and yours like this.
Thank you. Very few people cheat the system this way, and yet we assume it’s rampant because we hear about the few cases of egregious lying. It is so corrosive.
Have you seen the kids on Reddit? A lot more people cheat the system than you can even imagine.
Anonymous
11/19/2025 11:02
Subject: What activities are considered "impressive" to potential schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Gymnastics captain
AND Lead Cheerleader
AND Math team captain
AND Debate co-captain
AND Faculty award for top student in HS
In at two of HYP
Other than being good at becoming captain, I don’t see anything stand out in this resume. Where is the impact? How many times AIME qualified?
My guess this is fake. The poster needs to disclose what FCPS school gives an award for the highest GPA. There isn’t one.